He Brought Them Back Safe
by Cornelia Grayson
Summary: What would have happened to Amy and Rory if they had returned home at the end of The Angels Take Manhattan.


The night after they narrowly managed to escape from the Weeping Angels in Manhattan, Amy and Rory realised they couldn't carry on travelling with the Doctor. Hard as it was to live without the Doctor, living without their friends and family was already much harder. If they carried on travelling, they'd lose their new lives and, more importantly, they'd lose each other.

Telling the Doctor was horrible. Amy couldn't stop crying; she had to turn away because she knew that if she looked at his face, even for a second, she would lose her resolve and change her mind. They could tell the Doctor didn't understand and, for a few moments, they worried he'd refuse, that he'd keep them on the TARDIS with him. But River, their beautiful and clever daughter, River placed her hand on her arm and quietly spoke to him. She never told Amy what she said and Amy never asked but nevertheless it worked because the Doctor straightened up, put on that stupid, annoying, childish grin he had, and took them home. He promised to keep in touch, to send them a letter every now and then, to let them know he's safe but everyone knew he wouldn't. It would be too hard for him and, even if he tried, his sense of time was so terrible they probably wouldn't arrive until they were in their 90's. So Rory shook his hand and thanked him and then hugged him because he'd miss the Doctor almost as much as his wife would and went inside so Amy and her Raggedy Man could have their goodbye. Amy hugged her Doctor and she hugged him and hugged him and she tried to put so many unsaid things into that hug and she hoped he understood because he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head and then she turned and ran inside her house without looking back.

The next few weeks were awful. Amy was distraught and spent all day, every day, snapping at everyone. She spent hours on Google, looking for articles about the Doctor, trying to figure out what he was doing. Augustus and Tabetha were so worried they invited themselves to stay one weekend; they left early, with Tabetha in tears and Augustus terrified that his daughter was reverting to her stormy teenage self again. Rory worked more and more hours to try and fill the empty spot in his life that travelling with the Doctor normally filled. He started taking longer routes to work so he could spend more time out of the house and away from Amy. She couldn't look at him without hating him for making her grow up and he couldn't look at her without hating her for ever finding the Doctor in the first place. Brian, in particular, could see the damage they latest journey had down to their marriage and forced them to sit down and explain to him why they'd decided to come home and when the Doctor was coming back. He looked at them with such confusion – by the end of the night two plates had been smashed, dinner ruined, and Amy had thrown both the Williamses out of the house. But it was the push they'd needed.

Amy Pond and Rory Williams decided to go travelling. They'd seen so much of space but barely any of their own planet. Rory sat at the computer, ready to book the tickets, and Amy looked through several of the travel magazines she'd occasionally written columns for, calling out places she liked the sound of. It took them a while to get sorted - packing was almost impossible because Amy wanted to be there NOW and wouldn't pay attention and Rory was stressing over the fact he barely had two weeks to get everything together they'd need. They spent two weeks in Amsterdam at Amy's request, most of which was spent in the Van Gogh museum or on one of the many canal boats, where Rory looked at his beautiful wife and saw her coming back to life. They spent a few days in Belarus, learning about its fight for independence; one week in Mongolia, enjoying the festival of Naadam and enjoying the fine art and architecture; five days in Fiji, where they particularly enjoyed Fiji's desecration by the All Blacks. They travelled up through Angola, Kenya, and Niger; across to Paraguay and Bolivia; before ending in Manhattan, where their new story had begun.

Years later Amy and Rory would say how those were the best years of their lives, far outstripping the time they'd spent in the TARDIS, and how they only came back because their families were missing them. That was only half true. The young couple were missing the friends they'd stayed behind for, the families they finally had a chance to get to know, the daughter who could never find them on their travels. So they came home, surprising everyone by turning up at Brian's 65th birthday party. Amy pointed out, when they were alone later that evening, that she still expected to travel somewhere new at least once a year but they were both ready to settle down and move forward with their lives.

For a few weeks they both throw themselves back into their work with gusto. Rory loved his time at the hospital, making people better in a way that doctors never do. He compartmentalises well so he rarely gets upset when something goes wrong and a patient doesn't make it. He just makes a joke and moves on. Tabetha suggested he retrained as a doctor; Rory already had an immense knowledge of medical procedures and was a superb first aider. But he laughed it off and asked why he would want to be a doctor when he already had the best job in the world. Rory would come home, full of stories, and he would act them out to Amy as she sat on the sofa and watched him, her eyes full of love.

Amy wrote up her stories of their travels into beautifully, articulate columns. It took her several weeks and numerous bottles of wine but she was proud when she'd finished; they were some of her best work. The magazine agreed and asked if she wanted them to fund more trips for her. She could be Amy Pond, journalist. Amy Pond, who travelled the world. Impulsive Amy would have said yes but she looked around her cosy house, at the pictures of her with her friends, haphazardly stuck on the fridge, and she realised she didn't want to. Travelling had a special place in her heart and, of course, she loved writing but it wasn't fun by herself. What was the point of travelling without Rory? And then Impulsive Amy reared her head again and handed in her notice.

Rory was shocked when he came home to a house full of people celebrating Amy's retirement from journalism. He managed to extract a slightly drunk Amy from an incredibly loud game of Twister and asked her what the hell was she doing and did she think he could support this family by himself and why didn't she talk to him about this. And Amy reached up, tousled his hair, and told him that she couldn't bear to spend all that time away from him (maybe she wasn't that drunk after all) and that she was going to take one year. One year to find Amy Pond again. One year where she could do all the things she'd never done when she was stuck waiting for the Doctor. When had Rory ever been able to say no to his flame-haired wife? He begrudgingly smiled and Amy span on the spot and ran back to the game of Twister, which she lost by slipping over and pulling everyone down on top of her.

They decided to name the year – Amy liked "Pond Life", whilst Rory was a fan of "The Lagoon of Doom" – so when they had children they could use the year as a story, whether it was good or bad, and they spent the New Year's Eve preceding it alone. Amy promised Rory that it would be fine, that she would have fun, that they could afford it, and that next year she'd know what she wanted to do with her life. Rory promised her that she could do her year as long as she looked after herself and didn't get too lonely and as long as he could be a part of it. They were still kissing when the bells that signalled the start of the new year began to ring.

During Pond Life Amy got heavily involved in charity work, something she'd never done before. Having spent so long wrapped up in her own troubles as a child and so long travelling through the stars as an adult, this was the first real time in Amy's life where she could take a good look at the world she lived in. She was horrified. In such a beautiful universe, Amy hadn't realised that racism, sexism, and homophobia – to name but a few – was still so rampant. Amy started campaigning for equality: joining protests, organising sit-ins, even turning up at parliament to yell at the MP who decided it would be a good idea to say that women were only useful for having children. All of a sudden, Amy's house was overflowing with posters and leaflets, manifestos covered the kitchen table, and Rory nearly lost it when he opened the fridge and found Amy's notes for her upcoming speech instead of milk.

Twice a week Amy would volunteer with a charity that helped infertile mothers that have lost children. It was hard and emotional, especially on Melody's birthday, but she'd never felt like she was doing something so worthwhile before. She spent most of her time making leaflets and posters to help the women. They'd tried her in the shop but she got bored and started dressing up in the clothes instead of putting them on display and maths had never been her strong point. Then they'd put her in the office, doing paperwork, but Amy had no interest in paperwork and doodled on the paper instead. The boss had been on the point of firing her when two of Amy's colleagues stormed in and told her that Amy had more passion than any of them and under no circumstances should she be sacked and they just needed to find something she'd be good at. So, taking inspiration from Amy's drawings, her boss asked her to update the posters that had been first made a good five years ago and were at least partly responsible for the lack of interest in the services they offered. Amy threw her heart and soul into it – finally! Something she was good at. One day she decided to update the leaflets as well. Then they asked her to write the information for the website – this was Amy Pond, ex-journalist, after all. And then the interest in the charity went up, slowly at first but then through the roof. Celebrities started talking about it on Twitter, people donated money, one of Amy's colleagues ended up on the news. They had to hire more writers, more artists, more designers, and more mental health professionals. Amy had spent a good three or four days worried they were going to replace her with one of the actual professionals but her boss reassured her that she was an asset to the charity and an essential part of the family. Then she asked Amy if she, as an ex-model, would like to star in the first TV advert they were making. But Amy turned them down for the same reason she'd turned them down when they'd asked if she wanted to train as a counsellor; it was just too close to home.

A good portion of her year was dedicated to Amy redecorating the house – something they'd been meaning to do for years but had never had the time to. Rory made her promise not to make any important decisions without him, knowing that, if she did, he'd probably come home to find their bedroom in the kitchen and the entire house painted green. Amy didn't choose green though – she went for blue, from the gentle blue which was the same shade as the ribbon sewn into her wedding dress, to the rich blue of the TARDIS which had been their home for so long, to the deep midnight blue, the same colour as the night sky she'd fallen asleep under all those years ago in her garden. She particularly enjoyed covering the hideous orange paint in the kitchen that had clashed horribly with her vibrant ginger hair. Amy tore up floorboards and the house reeked of paint so badly that Rory moved back in with his dad for a few weeks because he was finding it impossible to sleep without getting migraines. But Amy didn't mind. The house smelt like her childhood bedroom, after she'd been building models or painting her imaginary friend.

She broke her shades of blue rule when she came to decorated one of the spare bedrooms. Instead, she chose various shades of green, River's favourite colour. The room is beautiful, roomy and airy – Amy wants her daughter to be able to feel free after all her time in prison – and the thick green curtains are coated with an expensive lace. The carpet is soft and the wardrobe is full of clothes in various sizes, just in case River can stay for more than one evening. Amy placed fairy lights around the headboard of the bed. She can remember how baby Melody didn't like the dark. Amy poured all the resources she had into River's room and, for a while, kept the cost of the room hidden from Rory, but one day he confronted her over breakfast about why she'd stopped telling him about her work. Amy explained and Rory angrily pointed out that maybe he wouldn't mind Amy spending loads of money on a room for River because River was his daughter too and if he had been decorating the house that's where his money would have gone. To apologise, Amy took Rory upstairs and showed him what she'd done before tactfully turning away so Rory could cry over their daughter. Their friends wonder why they only ever seem to use one of their spare rooms but Amy laughs and doesn't explain because how can she explain that the other one is her daughter's bedroom? River's never slept round yet – she doesn't have the time – but maybe one day.

For the kitchen, Amy buys a massive freezer so they can freeze most of their food when they travel. She takes care to place the photos back up messily though; she always liked the relaxed, yet organised, feel that they gave off. She also adds a magnetic notepad – Rory always moans about the fact Amy never finishes anything and the fact there is never enough milk. She's seen Rory looking at big ovens because he really loves cooking, even if he doesn't have time to do it much, so she buys the biggest and most impressive looking one she can find and gets it installed whilst he's at work. She tries to tie a bow around it but it is actually impossible so she covers it in flowers and throws glitter around the kitchen instead, which seemed like a good idea until she had to clean it up. For once, Rory doesn't seem to mind the mess as he spins Amy around the room and kisses her before he goes and examines his new oven.

By the time Amy gets to their bedroom, she is completely exhausted and fed up of DIY. But the occasional snide remarks from her friends about the fact she never finishes anything fills her with renewed vigour as she starts to tackle what she always thought would be her favourite part of her renovation. She rips apart their bedroom, taking back to the basics, before painting it the same dark shade of blue as her childhood room. It's important to Amy that this room is a little more personal – a space to remember the Doctor and River, where she doesn't have to answer awkward questions about who that older woman is in Amy and Rory's most treasured photos. So she draws. Amy's not the best artist but she's loved drawing ever since she was a little girl and who can she ask for help, when she wants drawings of Daleks and Silurians and Apalapucia. She goes out and buys proper drawing materials, some really beautiful canvases, and enough paint to last for weeks and she starts drawing. Pictures of her and Rory, from when they were children who spent their time playing to the beautiful and in love adults they are now; pictures of Mels, still Amy's best friend; pictures of the Doctor, where he's fighting Daleks or smiling that smile at her or stroking the TARDIS; pictures of the TARDIS itself, blue and glowing, in all its glory; pictures of the aliens she's seen on her travels, the places they've been to, the people she's met. Amy draws pictures of her parents and pictures of her Aunt Sharon. She draws Brian and she draws Rory's mother. She draws baby Melody but only a few pictures end up finished. It's hard enough thinking of the daughter she lost, let alone drawing her and sticking her to a wall. But mostly she draws River. River fighting and flirting and laughing and smiling. River with the Doctor. River with her parents. River. Rory's no artist but he draws too – pictures of Amy in particular. Amy laughs and points out they really don't look like her and her hair doesn't fall like that and she has a scar above her eye and her eyes don't sparkle and Rory pulls her close and tells her that's what she looks like to him and kisses her and they fall asleep in each other's arms, surrounded by drawings. Rory also draws pictures of the Rome he remembers. He knows none of those memories are real but they are so vivid and he can't bear to forget them. One of the times River turns up on one of her visits, they're still drawing. Amy and Rory had planned to take their daughter out for the evening but River sits down and joins in. River draws her Doctor – all of them – and she draws as many of the adventures that she's been on as she can, so her parents can have a copy. And she draws her parents. Pictures of Amy drawing, or running with the Doctor, or hugging Rory. Pictures of Rory at work, or looking frustrated (Amy says this is her favourite), or pulling Amy close. River is by far the best at art and one of her pictures – one of the three of them – gets pride of place above Amy and Rory's bed.

Amy adds fairy lights around the bed. Ever since Demon's Run Amy can't stand the dark – she thinks that's where River gets it from. One of her childhood TARDISes is on her bedside table, so she can see it when she wakes up and she can remember the fantastic life she's had and the better life she gave it up for. When she brings their clothes and belongings back into the room, she makes sure Rory's side of the room is organised and tidy, just as he likes it, but leaves hers slightly more cluttered than usual.

Pond Life or The Lagoon Of Doom or Amy's Year Off – whatever you want to call it – came to an end all too soon, both for Amy and Rory. Rory's scared he's going to lose this new, laughing Amy, this Amy who's got her fire back. But Amy's content; she's had a year to think about what she wants to do with her life. She loved campaigning but the hours were long and hard and the results too slow in coming for Amy to feel satisfied with her work. She adored her time working for charity and she has no plans to give that up, but it's unpaid and Rory can't support both of them on a nurse's wage. She's thought about Rory, and the Doctor, and even River, all saving people and being brilliant. Amy remembered her childhood and trained as a child psychiatrist.

Amy loves her new job. She lost out on being a mother when Melody was taken from her and now she gets to care for children again. She can remember the care she received when she was younger – when she missed her parents and so much of her life had been taken from her and she just wanted someone to listen and not tell her she was making it all up – and so she listens to the children. When they talk about seeing giant pepper pots in the garden she doesn't tell them they're lying. How can she after everything she's seen? Instead, she tells them that, although giant pepper pots may look nice, to stay away from them and, if they're scared, she tells them not to worry because she has a friend, who's a doctor, who protects all the children in the world. But she's doesn't believe everything they say and she's sharp enough to spot the signs of abuse or neglect. She can nearly always tell the difference between a child who really has stumbled across an alien or a robot or, once during a really exciting week, the Doctor, and a child who needs help. Amy likes to think she's making the mental health services for children better because they need to be better than the service she received. She takes the pictures they give her and the occasional thank you card and treasures them, sticking them up all over the house.

Whilst working with these children from all walks of life, Amy starts to think about fostering. Rory, of course, would love kids and she misses River. She brings it up, one night, over dinner and Rory almost chokes on his mashed potato ("Amy! You can't just spring something like that on me!").They talk about it but Rory's not too sure. He would prefer to adopt because he's already had to deal with losing Melody and he knows he couldn't deal with losing another child. Amy, on the other hand, wants to start with fostering – she doesn't know how she'll cope with a child that's not Melody and she wants to know she can cope before bringing a living, breathing child into the equation. And she knows all too well about how many children there are in the system, waiting for a home, and how could she only look after one of them, knowing there are hundreds out there who will never get a family. Feeling a row coming, they decide to think about it personally for a while.

For their 15th Wedding Anniversary – having spent their 10th undergoing a divorce – they decide to go to Rome, Rory's "other" home. They decide to make it family holiday so they take Amy's parents and Brian with them; neither Tabetha nor Brian was too happy about this because Tabetha thinks Brian acts too much like a child and is a bad influence on Amy and Brian is scared of Tabetha and finds Augustus boring. Rory writes a letter to River and leaves it on their table, letting River know where they'll be if she wants to come and telling her, as he always did, how much they love her. They decide to travel to all the tourist sites; Amy likes the ones where you can really feel the past, like Pompeii or Verona, whilst Rory likes the quiet ones that are almost secret and don't have that tourist-y feel. The spend a day by themselves in Venice, remembering the last time they were there – the day after Rory's stag go and only a few weeks before their wedding – and think about the vampires and the Doctor and Isabella and the Doctor and Guido and, most of all, the Doctor. Amy cries a bit and Rory goes a bit weepy but they have each other and they both know that that might not be the case if they'd continued to travel with him.

They take their respective parents back to Venice the next day, telling them that they need to see this beautiful statue, before surprising them by explaining they're going to renew their vows in a tiny little chapel. Tabetha bursts into tears and hugs Amy and Rory and tells them how proud she is and how they should have told her so she could have put on a better dress and maybe a nice hat. Augustus doesn't say anything but he smiles at Amy and she knows that he's proud of her too. Brian points out that neither of them are particularly religious but Amy replies that her parents are and they both think it's a nice idea to be officially married in the church as well as by law. They write their own vows – Rory cries through his and Amy laughs but she can't get through hers without crying either. It's a beautiful service, even if everyone cried, and Amy and Rory are just glad everyone went smoothly and they got to have a wedding where they remembered everything from their lives. They all go for dinner to celebrate and, as they arrive, Amy and Rory are given a present from an anonymous benefactor. After everyone has ordered, and Tabetha has asked them to what's in the package so many times Amy almost erupts, Rory opens the present. Amy peers over his shoulder to find a beautiful locked chest, full of pictures of planets and the stars, full of stories that really can only be from one person but they're not sure until they find out the bill has been paid for by a Professor R. Song.

After they return from their trip, Rory tells Amy he thinks they should maybe consider fostering. She throws her arms around his neck and asks if he means it and bursts into tears as she realises she's going to be a mother, a proper mother. They have to go through several months of meetings and group meetings and information evenings and more meetings and Rory starts to think that maybe this isn't such a good idea and Amy gets angry and asks why won't anyone let her have a child but eventually they get the go-ahead from social services. They get a little boy for a few months – Ralph. He's small and beautiful and funny. He can't sleep through the night without screaming and Amy and Rory fall in love. Amy teaches him to draw and Rory runs around the park playing football with him, whilst Amy watches from the side, laughing at her boys. Rory comes home from work with model dinosaurs and toy cars and cuddly rabbits and Amy reads to her Ralph, picking all the books she loved as a child and a few newer ones she knows he'll love. Ralph runs to Rory as he walks in from work and he falls asleep in Amy's arms. Rory and Ralph gang up on Amy and call her Carrot Head and Ralph makes his rabbit eat her and Amy throws him into the air and whirls him around and nibbles his ear and tells him that Carrot Heads eat little Ralphs and Ralph squeals until she lets him go. And when he is reunited with his family, it breaks their hearts. Amy falls asleep clutching the pictures he drew her and can't even think about him because it's too hard and now she's lost two children. Rory throws himself into work until one day he's walking and sees a young boy with brown hair and thinks, for a second, that it might have been Ralph and breaks down inside. He gets home, crying, and Amy rushes downstairs from their bedroom where she's been wrapping a friend's present, holding the scissors threateningly, and they simultaneously realise that they need each other to get through this. They spend the night talking and hugging and crying and a few days later decide to write a letter to Ralph, telling him how much they love him and care for him and that they'll never forget him, and ask their social worker to give it to his parents so they can decide if it Ralph can read it. They also ask their social worker if they can take their names off of the list of potential foster carers, at least for a while, because that was ten times harder than Amy thought it would be and they can't go through that again.

They can't think about children for a while and they spend the next six months recovering. Brian, who has taken to coming round at least twice a week to make sure his son and daughter-in-law are eating, asks them is they want to tackle their garden, since Amy did such good work on the house. Amy beams with pride and Rory groans because he knows what Amy is like when she has an idea and she has an idea now and he is going to get no peace. Amy writes out proper plans: she wants a lawn, where children can play; flowers, particularly sunflowers; a patio area, where they can host dinner parties for their friends and their children; and maybe a tree because everyone garden needs a tree. Rory points out that their garden already has a lawn and sunflowers and a patio area and a tree so Amy shoves him and by the end of the week has uprooted most of the garden and borrowed a pressure washer from their next-door neighbour to clean their patio with. Tabetha and Augustus buy a shed because Augustus knows that a man needs a shed and Tabetha knows that sheds are expensive and if they don't buy one, Amy and Rory will have too, so she lets her husband buy it, even if his reasons for doing so are bordering on sexist. Like Augustus expected, Rory gets the shed. At Amy's request, he paints it blue, although he only agreed to do so because he knows that if he didn't Amy would claim the shed for herself and he shudders when he imagines the state it would be in if that happened.

They clean up the lawn and put in a gravel path, leading from Amy's newly cleaned patio to Rory's TARDIS blue garden shed ("Why did they paint it blue? It doesn't go with anything!" is the common mutter from friends who come to visit). Rory organises his shed the day after an eventful trip to a garden centre to buy all the new spades and forks they need and then he makes a plan of where everything goes and sticks it on the fridge so Amy can't fail to see it and has no excuse for leaving the shed in a state similar to that of her wardrobe. He starts planting small flowers and vegetables in pots in his shed and suddenly they get really into the idea of sustainable living. They turn a corner of the garden into a vegetable patch ("Oh, are we not following your grand plan anymore Amy?") and plant peas and potatoes and lettuce. Amy spends a week putting up wind chimes and creating the most beautiful stained glass mosaics on the fence and in the floor around the vegetables, whilst Rory works on a "secret" in the shed. At the end of the week he runs inside, puts his hands over Amy's eyes, and takes her into the back garden to show her his hand-carved wooden bench, now sitting to one side of their vegetable patch. Amy laughs as she realises the weird markings are Rory's attempts to carve Gallifreyan into the bench ("What if you carved something horrible? You don't speak Gallifreyan!") and smiles a sad smile when she sees the words River and Mels and Ralph and Melody carved into the wood, along with stars. Amy starts to grow herbs in a pot on the kitchen window and Rory comes home from work one day carrying a Dwarf Apple Tree that he couldn't resist. They decide to plant it at the back of the garden so it won't be overshadowed by the much larger tree Amy had planted just days before, which had branches low enough for children to play on. They buy new garden furniture for the patio and Brian turns up with a greenhouse that they put under the kitchen window so they can grow cucumbers and tomatoes. Amy disappears one Sunday afternoon and returns just before Rory really works himself into a state and drags him into the garden to explain where she's been. She's decided it would be a nice idea to plant flowers for the three children they've lost in pots on the patio so they can remember them and have something living to take care off in their place. Rory plants a Pasque Flower for River, hard-wearing but beautiful, that need a deep and healthy root system; Amy plants a Californian Poppy for Ralph, as bright as a normal poppy but sunshine yellow in colour, a symbol of remembrance, and drought-tolerant so unlikely to die. Together they plant a lilac Daisy for Melody, grown specifically for them by a friendly, local gardener with a flair for invention. Daisies symbolise innocence and purity and what was Melody but innocent and pure? Daisies also symbolise loyal love, which Amy felt was particularly fitting for a mother who had lost a child. She'd decided to make it lilac because she'd learnt that Lilacs symbolise youthful innocence and Melody was so young and could never grow up because she had been taken so horrifically from them and this was the only way Amy could come up with of combining the two flowers. The pots themselves have been lovingly decorated by Amy and they stand in pride of place on the patio, where Amy and Rory are deaf to the odd comment that it looks out of place with three pots and it really should be an even number.

Amy and Rory adopt a son, a new born baby boy, a few years later. They'd contacted their social worker and explained they would like to adopt, if that was okay, and their social worker had warned them that it would be difficult, and they probably wouldn't get a baby, and the chance was that the child would be troubled and could go completely off the rails, and were they ready for that because they couldn't handle fostering, and they'd need to be checked again, and it would take a long time, and they couldn't back out of an adoption because it was children's lives they would be messing with, and they were nearly forty and could they cope with caring for a young child or emotional teenager. But, finally, Amy and Rory became parents to Anthony Brian Williams ("Williams" "What? Not Pond?" "Melody was my Pond, Anthony can be our Williams."), when he was just a few days old. Amy had liked Peter and Rory liked Anthony, and after a long discussion, where Amy had said she wanted his middle name to be Brian because Brian had done so much for them after they had left the Doctor and after they had lost Ralph, they both decided that Anthony Brian Williams sounded better than Peter Brian Williams. The first time Amy held her son she felt such a rush of love that she hadn't felt since she had first held Melody and she actually believed she could do this and Rory looked at his wife and his son and knew he now had his family.

Amy nearly always called him Tony, which she thought was much cooler that Anthony and because she thought Tony Stark was a much better role model than, well, she couldn't think of an Anthony which almost proved her point. Rory and Amy decorated Tony's nursery together and money was no object. Amy bought a pure white crib and a silk-lined Moses blanket, which she laid Tony in and watched him drift off to sleep and decided that she had never spent £50 better. Rory painted the room lilac, a colour they both now associated with Melody, and found a giant print of the solar system and, with Brian's help, carefully stuck it to Tony's ceiling so every night he could sleep under the stars. Rory started learning as many of the stars and constellations as he could so he could show them to his son as Tony led on his back in his crib and Amy overheard Rory telling Brian that he hoped he'd nearly now them all by the time Tony was old enough to understand him. The room filled up with toys, some from their friends, nearly a hundred from Tabetha, Augustus, and Brian, and a very special, if badly made, something that River brought, the second time she'd visited her much younger brother. A friend of Amy's bought Tony a tiger playsuit and before long Amy and Rory really got into the Tiger theme. They bought a striped black and orange changing mat, a wooden mobile carved in the shapes of wild animals, and literally hundreds of cuddly toy tigers for Tony the Tiger. Amy and Rory registered Tony's birth together but Amy told Rory to take their little tiger home because she needed to do something and she turned up, a few hours later, after changing her name by deed poll to Amelia Williams because she wanted the same name as her son.

Whilst on Maternity leave, Amy started writing books and she continued to do so for many years afterwards. She wrote about her daughter in a kick-ass detective series for teenagers; about the Doctor in one, long, beautifully written love affair of a woman who fell in travelled with a magical man but fell in love with the boy from her childhood; about travelling through space and time in a set of picture books for children. She kept them a secret from Rory, worried that he would laugh and she would lose her confidence and stop writing, but she told them to Tony when she was carrying him around the house, and when they hugging on the sofa, and to help send him to sleep. Amy found that Tony preferred the ones that had no semblance to her history, and she started making more, ones she knew he'd love. One day, Rory overheard Amy reading one of her stories and sat on the floor outside Tony's room and listened. He listened to wife create whole worlds and magical adventures with only her words and later, when they were alone, asked her about the story she had told their son. Amy showed him the hidden manuscripts, stories that she'd printed in the hope of getting them published before chickening out and placing them in a drawer. Rory read them and fell in love with Amelia Pond all over again. He convinced Amy that they were good enough to be published and that they should show one first and then, once it was published, explain that she had even more at home. Amy laughed and said they wouldn't be published but if he thought she should, she would show them to a published and, for the first time, began to dream that she could be a published author, although even if they were published they both had to understand that she wouldn't leave her job. They _were_ published. Almost all of them. Amy's first novel, _Summer Falls_, was a best seller.

Tony grew fast. He was exceptionally tall for a five year old, something Amy and Rory loved because they evidently had tall genes and if Tony did too it just made them closer as a family. On his first day at school, Rory cried and told Tony that school was important and it helped make you into the person you were meant to be and that you meet your best friends at school and Amy told him to shut up because all he's managing to do is bore Tony and make Amy melancholic. So Rory gave Tony his tiger lunchbox and the biggest hug he's ever given him ("Rory! He's going to school, not off to war") and Amy gently guides her son out of the door and down the street. Despite her comments to Rory, Amy can't help herself giving advice and reassurance to Tony all the way to the door where she gives him a hug and tells him to go and have fun and he hugs her back and asks why she isn't coming in. But, before Amy can answer, her son is swept up in a wave of five year olds and disappears through the green double doors without a backwards glance.

Tony loves school. He's got his father's brains and is quiet enough in the classroom. Thanks to Amy he's already learnt to read basic words and can write his own name. He learns his first few numbers and recites them to Rory at night, stumbling when he gets to four because he always wants to put five first, but Rory is kind and gentle teacher and slowly but surely Tony starts to remember. One day he runs into Amy whilst she is watering the garden and recites the numbers 1-10 so fast he falls over. After a few speechless seconds, Amy pulls him up into her arms and goes inside to order pizza and ice cream for her tiny little genius. Whilst Rory is helping Tony with his numbers, Amy works with him on his spellings. Soon the Williams' household is full of words stuck everywhere: on the fridge, the walls, the doors, even on the toilet. Tony struggles to understand why 'come' and 'home' don't rhyme but he's got a good memory and the before long gets 8/10 in his spelling test which prompts Rory to start turning the second spare room into a library for his son.

Tony has his mother's nature. He's popular in the playground, with everyone wanting to play his games and asking him if his mummy's hair is on fire. The teachers worry because they've seen popular kids like this before and they tend to either end up being bullied or being the bully so they call Amy and Rory in after school and talk to them. Rory thinks they should just keep an eye on their son because he's only five and of course they'll notice if anything is afoot. Amy's approach is more head on; she invites a bunch of Tony's new friends over for tea. At the end of the night both Amy and Rory agree to never do anything on that scale ever again and if Tony has to invite a friend round they're asking Brian to babysit. But Tony doesn't mind and, although Amy has to put up with the weird looks from the parents of the children who visited, the Williamses can tell their son is happy and for that they are truly grateful.

Tony was a contented child but Tony the teenager rivalled Tony the tiger in terms of the noise he made and the mess he left in his wake. He develops a passion for music and convinces Augustus to buy him an electric guitar, which he keeps in his room and plays late at night if he ever wants Rory and Amy to agree to something. Rory likes to sit downstairs and listen to his son make music and beautiful as Amy makes stories and one day Tony invites him upstairs to listen and they talk for hours about every genre of music from rock' n' roll to hip hop to kpop to classical. Amy still writes stories for her son and, although he pretends otherwise, Tony always gets excited when Amy finishes writing and he gets to see what his mother's brain has conjured up this time. He's less popular than when he was younger and less clever too; he's one of those incredibly gifted children who grow up to become far more average. But his parents don't care because their son is happy and hard-working (and actually gets pretty good exam results) and he loves his friends and that's all they could ever ask for.

One day, when Tony was moaning about never seeing his friends and about how he just wanted to go to band practise and was it so hard to let him go, River turned up in the middle of breakfast. Tony, who even as a "cool teen" adored his older sister, stopped moaning instantly and Amy threw her arms around her daughter and Rory had to sit down because River's sudden appearance had almost given him a heart attack. Rory had decided that the next time River had visited he was going to take his family to the beach, even if River had turned up in the middle of the night as she usually did, because she'd made a comment about having never gone to the beach as a child and Rory decided he needed to give her at least one good memory of the seaside to hold on to. So the Pond-Williams family set off, picnic packed, on a journey to the sea. They argued all the way there – could you please open the window and what is that music and who made that smell – but as they arrived they'd never been closer. Amy flew onto the sand and ran into the sea, calling to her family to join her; River followed her mother, laughing, and hugged her, and called Tony – who had been hanging back – over. Rory bought a bucket and spade, which made Tony exclaim that he wasn't a child anymore and it was a waste of money, but River used them, building a magnificent village, whilst talking excitedly about her new archaeology team. The picnic Rory had packed was a disaster: the crisps were crushed, the water had leaked everywhere, and the soggy sandwiches were covered in sand almost instantly but they all ate it anyway, teasing Rory as they did so. Amy bought ice creams for her family to make up for their lunch and, as they walked along the sea front, River told her parents about a trip she was about to make to a sort of Library Planet and how, from what she's heard, they would love it and that she'd try to bring them back a souvenir this time but most libraries don't sell souvenirs so she'd have to see. River left them, not long after that, letting her family drive home together. They never saw her again.

Tony grew into a handsome young man who was taller than his mother and almost as tall as his father. From a young age Amy and Rory had instilled in him a love of travelling so, at the ripe old age of 20, Tony ("It's Anthony") Williams took his official gap year. He backpacked across Europe ("Your mother and I travelled the continents"); sending postcards back whenever he could find them. He sent individual ones to his parents – Rory's were scenic shots, of rolling hills or beautiful plains, and Tony would fill the card with tales of the adventures he'd been on and the places he'd seen. For Amy, Tony chose cards with pictures of buildings or statues or local art. To his mother he'd write about the people he'd met on his travels, about their culture and about how scared he was that he'd miss out of so much if he came home. He sent a few cards for River too, for Tony had not forgotten his big sister who'd disappeared after that day at the beach. He wrote about how much he missed her and how travelling would be better together and added a note to his parents warning them not to read River's post.

Eventually Tony, like his parents, had to return home. He had little money and, although he had told Amy his fears of missing out on the world, he was also scared of missing out of ordinary life. Of missing trips to the shop and walks in the park and pints in the pub. Of missing out on spending time with his parents and having a family. He, again like his parents before him, struggled to adjust to "normal" life. Rory talked to him about finding a job and not just any job but one that he'd love because, if he didn't enjoy his work, there was no point in doing it. Amy told him not to worry because you can't force life to turn out the way you want it to; you just have to go along with what happens. So Tony settled down. He bought a small two-up two-down with the last of his inheritance and met his neighbours. He wandered around supermarkets, making sure he always picked something he'd never tried before. He scoured the internet to find a job that appealed to him – Rory suggested taking his music forward or maybe finding a "people persons" job because Tony had always been so loveable. Amy told him about her past as a travel writer and about how she used to change jobs at the drop of a hat and how that's no way to live. There was too much advice for Tony to heed so he went away to think and turned up the next weekend and informed his parents that he was going on a course – he was going to become a geography teacher.

Tony married young – older than his parents were but young all the same – after he fell head over heels in love with the young librarian who worked at his school as she finished her degree. Lily was perfect. Her straw-like hair was pulled back into a messy bun and her glasses made her eyes seem slightly too big for her face and her clothes were often creased or covered in paint splotches. More importantly, she had a kind heart and was one of those lucky teachers who manage to appeal to everyone from the smallest 11 year old to the biggest young adult. It took almost a year, right to the end of Lily's placement at the school, for Tony to pluck up the courage to ask her out and thankfully she agreed (privately she was just glad that he'd asked her out before she'd had to ask him). They spent an evening in that quiet country pub that was the first one Tony visited after returning from his gap year. Tony told her about his travels and Lily told him about the fascinating history of the Scandinavian countries she'd moved about in when she was a girl. Tony told him about his tiny house and nosy neighbours and Lily told him about her student flat and that time her roommate was baking and cracked a rotten egg and the floor had to be evacuated.

Tony and Lily had a tiny wedding two days before Christmas. Amy and Rory were invited, of course, and Lily's family and there was a place set for River just in case she was ready to come back. It was beautiful and intimate, which mirrored their marriage, and a few years later Amy and Rory had two young grandchildren – Melody, for the sister Tony lost, and Peter, who was not only the protagonist of Lily's favourite book but also was the embodiment of the message Amy had imbued in her son. Amy loved being a grandparent and Rory loved it too. After losing two children and being continuously worried about their third, Amy and Rory had two ready-made children ready to be spoilt. They bought a cuddly version of nearly every animal under the sun. Rory made wooden mobiles and carved wooden stars. Amy wrote stories, not for the public, but for her family, about farmyard animals and a young brother and sister who went on adventures with their cool grandparents.

Eventually Amy and Rory retired. Amy did first because as much as she loved her job it was hard work and she knew she was having more trouble connecting with the children and she didn't want to work until she died. Rory held on for a few more years; he loved his job and always had. But eventually he realised that he was missing out on living with his wife and, like Amy had done so many years earlier, invited their friends round to celebrate and surprise Amy when she came home from visiting Tony. Once again, they went travelling for a few years, just the two of them. They did the tourist hotspots they'd avoided on their journeys over the years – a really fun week was spent in Magaluf, as well as the more secluded areas they'd always been drawn to. Whilst on their travels, Amy started writing another story; her first one for publication for several years. This book was about a young girl called Jessica who went on journeys with her real best friend, Arthur, and her imaginary best friend, Mr Smith (he always wore a stethoscope but it was never explained why), and their pet bird, Singsong. Amy wrote about the beauty of the world and about how some people in the world were treated cruelly because of their race or sexuality. She wrote tales of the civilisations she had met and how, although they were different from British children, their children loved to play and laugh and eat and sleep too. Jessica (her called herself Jess) made friends with a stray dog called Ralph, who would occasionally join the quartet on their journeys, and one time they met a tiger called Tony in Southern India. Amy dedicated this final book to the childhood friend who had shaped her life more than anyone else, _Goodbye, Raggedy Man_, and gave it to her grandchildren to read first when she and Rory returned home.

Rory died first, passing away peacefully in hospital, aged 82. Amy was distraught but she was wiser than she'd once been and knew that Rory had been ready and that he was in a better place. She comforted her son and cuddled her grandchildren and spent the night sat under the stars, telling the Doctor and River about what had happened and not to worry because she was okay. Amy spent almost all her time from then on with her grandchildren, playing and telling stories and watching them paint the worlds she had so carefully created in her mind. Or she spent them in the garden she'd spent so much time in with Rory, tending to his plants and making sure the shed stayed exactly how he liked it. She bought more flowers, sunflowers, and added them to the patio where the flowers for River, Ralph, and Melody had already been joined by flowers for Tony, Lily, Melody Jr., and Peter. She asked her grandchildren to decorate a plant pot for their grandfather and they did so with gusto, drawing lions and stethoscopes and pizza because of their grandad's obsessions with Rome. And in the evenings, when she was alone, Amy read her letters from River, remembering her daughter and her husband and the life she had once had. She spent her last years happy.

Amy died aged 87. In accordance with her wishes, she was buried alongside Rory, in a small and simple plot in their local church. Her family left flowers at their grave once a week at first and later, when they grew up and their memories of Amy and Rory faded, once a month. But twice a year another bouquet of flowers was left on the grave. Sunflowers. Every year, twice a year, a bright bouquet of sunflowers was left at the foot of the grave of Amelia Pond and Rory Williams – they were left on the day a mysterious blue police box crashed into eight year old Amelia's garden and on the day Amy and Rory returned from that fateful trip to Manhattan. On the day he brought them back safe.


End file.
